University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting

‘SEEKING THAT WHICH CANNOT BE FOUND’: CHIVALRIC AND GAELIC PRECURSOR TEXTS AS COMMENTARY IN THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING By EMERSON STORM FILLMAN RICHARDS A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Emerson Storm Fillman Richards 2 To Gainesville, Mordred, Aiden McInnerny, Chaucer, the Space Needle, Dante, T.H. & T.H. But not T.H. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In tenth grade, the boy I liked said, ‘Read The Once and Future King”. Ten years later, I found myself writing a thesis about The Once and Future King because T. H. White’s Arthurian legend, and his Mordred, impacted me so deeply. I would probably not be a medievalist were it not for T.H.White—I simply would not have known to be. I am glad to have had the opportunity to work with Professors Terry Harpold and William Calin. These men have supported my scholarly endeavors and labored with me to craft this thesis and my research process. Though Terry is not a medievalist, he took me and my project on, for which I am grateful. Professor Calin is probably UF’s best kept secret (from me at least). I am sorry it took me so long to find him, but I am so glad that I did. Both of these men have left indelible marks on me as a scholar and a person—I’m the better for having spent two years working with them. In 2011, Professor Michael Cramer asked if I had anything to contribute to a panel at the International Congress on Medieval Studies on the protean nature of chivalry. I said yes, and my thesis topic was born. Having presented this thesis as a conference paper, I should thank everyone who posed questions and in someway helped me mould this argument, most notably: Professor C.J. Jones (Notre Dame), Lucas Wood (University of Pennsylvania), Professor Steve Muhlberger (Nipissing University), and Sebastian Rider-Bezerra (Yale University). Jacqueline Cox, of the Cambridge University Libraries, was beyond kind when she helped me track down records on White’s time in Queens College, Cambridge. When I saw White’s name written in the registrar from the 1920s, and his grades, he suddenly seemed so tangible and human—an experience I had not yet felt as a scholar. Thanks to Professor R. Allen Shoaf and Dr. Judy Shoaf, who made time for me and helped me work through ideas in this thesis. It has always a pleasure to talk about Arthurian 4 matters with Judy Shoaf. Professor Shoaf inspires me to continue my medievalist training. One day, I want to speak about Dante or Shakespeare the way he does. To Matthieu Boyd, for reading this thesis, for telling me stories, for helping me to become a better scholar and for encouraging me to be that better scholar. To Julie LeBlanc, for joining me on this arduous journey of being a medievalist/celticist grad student. To Alex Flores for eating my food, being my best friend, and laboring to keep me sane. To Walton Wood for late-night balcony chats, lemurs and labyrinths, and for making me happy when things were awful. And to Brad Johnson, my bosom friend, who above all supports me unequivocally and who has heard more about medieval literature than he ever signed on for in high school. The amount of thanks I want to give to each of these brilliant people is rivaled only by the amount of my love that they deserve. Finally, I thank Storm Richards and Jeanne Fillman-Richards for the time, the money and the love, support and food; I will return the love, I will return the food, but not the money. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................................................7 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................10 2 SEEKING LANCELOT .........................................................................................................23 3 GAELI CONCERNS ..............................................................................................................35 4 LANCELOT, LORD TENNYSON & DUTY AS FATAL WEAKNESS, OR FINDING THAT WHICH CANNOT BE FOUND, A CONCLUSION .................................................53 LIST OF REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................63 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CW The Candle in the Wind BM The Book of Merlin IMK The Ill-Made Knight OFK The Once and Future King QAD The Queen of Air and Darkness SS The Sword in the Stone Vin. Vinaver edition of Malory WW The Witch in the Wood 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts SEEKING THAT WHICH CANNOT BE FOUND’: GAELIC AND CHIVALRIC TEXTS AS COMMENTARY IN THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING By Emerson Storm Fillman Richards May 2013 Chair: Terry Harpold Major: English In the wake of his (now lost) thesis on the Arthurian material that is commonly called Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur at Queens College, Cambridge, in the late 1920s, Terrence Hanbury White was able to remark upon different representations of chivalry and courtliness in historical literatures. His tetralogy, The Once and Future King (1958), demonstrates his deep knowledge of the Arthurian tradition and related elements of medieval literature and culture. I propose that through the many versions of Arthurian legend figured in The Once and Future King, in relation to changes in social perceptions of chivalry—as a code of courtly conduct and as a code of warfare—we can discern White’s responses to, and critique of, these codes. This thesis will consider White’s use of material reappropriated from traditions of the Arthuriad in The Once and Future King to comment on two pressing political (and personal) concerns of his contemporary England—the imminence of World War II and the rise of Gaelic, particularly Irish, nationalism in the early twentieth century. I focus on two Lancelot-related examples, and a series of ‘Gaelic’ examples, to suggest that White’s reuse of precursor texts is not a superficial pastiche of textual and cultural references, but a calculated selection of allusions meant to critique this and other contemporary issues in a sophisticated way. My work will attempt to 8 establish White’s Arthurian tetralogy in the canon alongside his peers, J.R.R Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. I will accomplish this work of criticism in four sections. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Once and Future King is the common title of the four books by T. H. White published in 1958. Three of the books had been published individually prior to 1958. Episodes from The Sword in the Stone (1938) were deleted for the 1958 publication. The most notable example is the Madam Mim vignette, which reappears later in Disney’s animated The Sword in the Stone. The second book, The Queen of Air and Darkness, originally published in 1939 as The Witch in the Wood, underwent the most drastic changes of the tetralogy. After the 1958 edits of the second book, the number of pages was severely cut and many thematic elements were rent from the narrative, one being a more in-depth treatment of Morgause’s character both as a mother and as a woman. Stylistic and superficial textual changes were made to the The Ill Made Knight, but the book remained, for the most part, the same as the 1940 publication. The final book, The Candle in the Wind, had not appeared in print before 1958. White intended that a fifth volume, The Book of Merlyn, should be published as a conclusion to The Once and Future King, but it was rejected by the publisher. The Book of Merlyn was published posthumously after revision and reorganization. I will consider primarily the text of 1958 tetralogy compilation, The Once and Future King. When I refer to the individual books, it will be assumed that I am referring to the edited 1958 versions found within OFK, unless otherwise noted. I will take in to account the texts and variations between the 1930s versions and the ‘final’ 1958 version if there is a significant difference. For example, the variation between The Witch in the Wood and The Queen of Air and Darkness is directly related to my analysis of White’s treatment of Gaelic concerns, so I will draw heavily from The Witch in the Wood. Though White considered The Book of Merlyn to be part of his series, I will not discuss it in detail, though the larger arc of my argument remains cognizant of it—especially in lieu of White’s changing relationship to Malory 10 and his increased understanding and rejection of war. White wrote The Book of Merlyn after he had postulated that Malory’s work was essentially a treatise against war. Though I refer to The Once and Future KIng as a tetralogy, I am aware that White technically meant for his series to be a pentology. Since the examples from which I draw occur in the second and third books, I focus on those two and incorporate material from the other three as it pertains to my main argument. When he began work on The Sword in the Stone, White wrote to his mentor, Leonard James Potts, on 14 January 1938, expressing confusion about whether he was writing a children’s book, or a more serious work (White qtd in Gallix 93).1 Both versions of The Sword in the Stone, featuring young Arthur’s adventures with talking animals, convey a serious political critique, but with a sense of whimsy befitting the representation of a young adult’s psyche. Merlyn transforms young Arthur into various animals from whom Arthur learns about different types of government, such as fascism, monarchy and communism.

Load more